A social cognitive model of well-being [Lent, R. W. (2004). Toward a unifying theoretical and practical perspective on well-being and psychosocial adjustment. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 51, 482--509.] was adapted to the context of academic adjustment and tested using a longitudinal design. Participants were 252 students at a university in northern Portugal. They completed measures of academic self-efficacy, environmental support, goal progress, and adjustment, along with global measures of positive affect and life satisfaction. Path analyses indicated that the model fit the data well overall. As expected, self-efficacy and environmental support were predictive of goal progress and academic adjustment, and the latter was predictive of students’ global life satisfaction. Self-efficacy and positive affect were found to be reciprocally related to one another. Contrary to expectations, goal progress did not contribute uniquely to the prediction of academic adjustment or life satisfaction. We consider directions for future research applying the social cognitive model to satisfaction in, and adjustment to, educational and work settings.
In an effort to extend the study of subjective well-being (SWB) to vocational and counseling psychology, Lent (2004) recently proposed a unifying theoretical approach to domain and life satisfaction. This approach draws upon inquiry on both hedonic and eudaimonic perspectives on well-being and includes cognitive (e.g., goals), behavioral (e.g., participation in valued life tasks), social (e.g., support), and trait-affective elements (Brunstein, 1993, Cantor and Sanderson, 1999, Diener and Fujita, 1995, Diener et al., 1999, McCrae and Costa, 1991, Ryan and Deci, 2000 and Ryff and Singer, 1998). Lent and Brown, 2006 and Lent and Brown, 2008 later extended Lent’s general unifying approach to the specific domains of educational and work satisfaction. This theoretical effort incorporates key elements of social cognitive theory, which has proven to be a versatile framework in the study of adaptive processes and positive adjustment (Bandura, 1997 and Bandura, 2001). The educational and vocational extensions of the well-being model are also designed to complement the previously developed interest, choice, and performance models of social cognitive career theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994).
